50 Fun Facts About 2020

Which Philippine volcano had its first major eruption since 1977 on January 12, 2020?

Ash fell on Manila, 60 km away, and hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from around the crater lake.

Which retired NBA star died with his daughter Gianna in a January 2020 helicopter crash?

Nine people died; investigators blamed the pilot's decision to fly into heavy fog. The Lakers won the title that October in his memory.

Which trade agreement did the USMCA, signed in January 2020, replace?

The North American Free Trade Agreement had been in force since 1994.

How long was the transition period after the UK left the EU on January 31, 2020?

The UK formally left on January 31, 2020; the transition ran to December 31, with the trade deal agreed on Christmas Eve.

On February 11, 2020, the WHO gave the new coronavirus disease which official name?

The name stands for coronavirus disease 2019; the virus itself is SARS-CoV-2.

Which country was the first to impose a nationwide COVID-19 quarantine, on March 9, 2020?

Lombardy had been locked down the day before; the whole country followed, with balcony singing becoming a global image.

On which date in 2020 did the WHO declare COVID-19 a pandemic?

The same day, the NBA suspended its season and Tom Hanks announced he had tested positive in Australia.

Which annual event was cancelled in March 2020 for the first time in its 64-year history?

Rotterdam kept the hosting rights and staged the 2021 contest instead. Wimbledon was also cancelled, but for the first time since 1945.

The 2020 Summer Olympics were postponed to 2021. Which city was host?

They were the first Games ever postponed, and were held in July–August 2021 largely without spectators.

Which country became NATO's 30th member on March 27, 2020?

Its 2018 name change settled a long dispute with Greece that had blocked the accession.

In April 2020, the first zoo animal to test positive for COVID-19 was a tiger at which zoo?

Nadia, a four-year-old Malayan tiger, caught it from an asymptomatic keeper.

What unprecedented thing happened to the price of US crude oil on April 20, 2020?

West Texas Intermediate futures closed at about minus $37 as storage ran out and traders paid to offload contracts.

SpaceX's May 2020 crewed launch was the first from US soil since the retirement of what?

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley flew the Crew Dragon to the ISS; the Shuttle had last flown in 2011.

Whose murder by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020, sparked worldwide protests?

Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in April 2021. The protests spread to hundreds of cities.

On June 30, 2020, China imposed a sweeping national security law on which territory?

It criminalised secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, and the UK responded by offering a citizenship path to BN(O) passport holders.

In July 2020, hackers hijacked high-profile Twitter accounts to promote a scam involving what?

Accounts belonging to Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Apple all posted the same 'send bitcoin, get double back' message.

NASA's Mars 2020 mission, launched on July 30, carried which rover?

It landed in Jezero Crater in February 2021 with the Ingenuity helicopter strapped to its belly.

Barakah, the Gulf region's first commercial nuclear power station, began operating in 2020 where?

The same year the UAE launched its Hope probe to Mars, the first interplanetary mission by an Arab nation.

Unsafely stored ammonium nitrate caused a huge explosion in which port city on August 4, 2020?

The 2,750 tonnes had sat in a warehouse since a ship was impounded in 2013. Around 300,000 people were left homeless.

Mass protests followed the August 2020 re-election of Alexander Lukashenko in which country?

Opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya rejected the result and fled to Lithuania.

Which country announced the world's first approved COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, in August 2020?

The approval came before large-scale trials had finished, drawing criticism from scientists abroad.

In August 2020, Israel agreed to normalise relations with which Gulf state?

Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco followed within months under what became known as the Abraham Accords.

Bayern Munich beat which club 1–0 in the 2020 Champions League final in Lisbon?

Kingsley Coman, a PSG youth product, scored the only goal. The final was played behind closed doors.

Who replaced Shinzo Abe as prime minister of Japan in September 2020?

Abe, Japan's longest-serving PM, resigned citing ill health. Suga lasted just a year before Kishida took over.

Jacinda Ardern won a landslide second term in October 2020 as prime minister of which country?

Labour won the first outright parliamentary majority since New Zealand adopted proportional representation in 1996.

In October 2020, NASA's OSIRIS-REx briefly touched down on which asteroid to collect a sample?

The sample, about 120 grams, landed in the Utah desert in September 2023.

Who became the first woman elected president of Moldova in November 2020?

The former World Bank economist beat the pro-Russian incumbent Igor Dodon in a runoff.

Kamala Harris was elected in November 2020 as which number US vice president?

Joe Biden became the 46th president; Harris was the first woman, first Black American and first South Asian American in the job.

Which two companies announced the first successful phase III COVID-19 vaccine trial in November 2020?

Interim results showed 90% efficacy, later revised to 95%. Stock markets jumped on the news.

Which country was the first to approve a fully tested COVID-19 vaccine, on December 2, 2020?

Six days later 90-year-old Margaret Keenan in Coventry became the first person vaccinated outside a trial.

Which famous radio telescope in Puerto Rico collapsed on December 1, 2020?

Its 900-ton instrument platform fell into the dish weeks after engineers declared it unsafe to repair. It had starred in GoldenEye and Contact.

Which was the last continent to report COVID-19 infections, in December 2020?

The 36 cases were at Chile's Bernardo O'Higgins research base.

Charpentier and Doudna won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing what?

It was the first science Nobel shared by two women alone.

Which organisation won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize?

The UN agency was honoured for fighting hunger as the pandemic pushed millions toward famine.

Which American poet won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature?

She was the first American to win since Bob Dylan in 2016, and the first American poet since T. S. Eliot in 1948.

Roger Penrose shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for work on which objects?

Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez shared it for finding the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

Which film became the first non-English-language winner of the Best Picture Oscar in February 2020?

Bong Joon Ho's film also won the Palme d'Or, only the fourth film ever to take both prizes.

Which team ended a 50-year championship drought by winning Super Bowl LIV in February 2020?

They trailed the 49ers by 10 in the fourth quarter before Patrick Mahomes led a 21–0 finish. Shakira and Jennifer Lopez did the halftime show.

Where did the NBA finish its 2020 season inside a 'bubble'?

The Lakers beat the Heat in six for their 17th title, LeBron James won his fourth Finals MVP, and not one player tested positive.

The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2020 World Series, their first since which year?

They beat the Tampa Bay Rays in six at a neutral site, Globe Life Field in Texas, after a 60-game regular season.

Liverpool won the 2019–20 Premier League, their first English league title in how many years?

They clinched it with seven games to spare, the earliest ever, yet on the latest date ever, June 25, because of the pandemic pause.

Which Netflix documentary about Joe Exotic drew 34 million viewers in its first ten days?

Carole Baskin, his nemesis in the series, went on to compete on Dancing with the Stars that autumn.

Which Supreme Court justice died on September 18, 2020, at age 87?

She was the second woman ever on the Court. Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the seat eight days before the election.

Which Black Panther star died of colon cancer on August 28, 2020, having kept his illness private?

He had been diagnosed in 2016 and filmed several Marvel movies during treatment. He was 43.

Which Nintendo Switch game, released on March 20, 2020, became a lockdown phenomenon?

It sold more than 50 million copies and set a record for the most digital units sold by any console game in a single month.

Which artist's 'Blinding Lights' was the best-selling global single of 2020?

It became the first song ever to spend a full year in the Billboard top ten, yet was famously shut out of the Grammy nominations.

Which games console was released worldwide in November 2020?

Microsoft's Xbox Series X and S arrived the same week, and both families were nearly impossible to find in shops for a year.

On February 5, 2020, the US Senate acquitted Donald Trump at the end of what?

A second impeachment trial followed in February 2021, again ending in acquittal.

A Yahoo! time capsule opened in March 2020 had been sealed in which year?

Yahoo collected digital submissions from users in 2006 and promised to open them on its 25th anniversary.

Which sultan of Oman, the Arab world's longest-serving ruler, died in January 2020?

He had ruled since 1970. His cousin Haitham bin Tariq succeeded him.